law unto oneself

名词 n.
英 /ˈlɔː ˈʌntʊ ˌwʌnˈsɛlf/|/-ˈʌntuː-/|/-ˈʌntə-/    美 /ˈlɔ ˈʌntə ˌwʌnˈsɛlf/|/-ˈʌntʊ-/

英文释义

名词 n.
  1. One who is free from the constraints of law or rules. countable,uncountable
    — If you take away the Law, all things will fall into a Confuſion, every Man will become a law unto himſelf; which, in the depraved Condition of Human Nature, muſt needs produce many great Enormities.
  2. One who flouts the law or conventional wisdom; one who ignores rules or logic to behave according to his or her own standards. countable,uncountable
    — [T]he law was made to oppress the colored race, so I snapped my finger at the law, an' resolved to come up with it every time I got a chance. I would be a higher law unto myself; for if a white man, when he was wronged, was justified in rightin' himself, even to the takin' of life, I, bein' no whit inferior to my white compeer, would take the law into my own hands as he had into hisn.
  3. One who is lawful in the absence of an enforced law; one who behaves with integrity. countable,dated,uncountable
    — For when the Gentiles which haue not the Law, doe by nature the things contained in the Law: theſe hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themſelues.

词形变化

laws unto themselves plural

词汇关系

相关词
scofflaw take the law into one's own hands

词源

Probably from Romans 2:14 in the King James Version of the Bible (see the quotation under sense 3 below), though the term has come to have the opposite meaning, as senses 1 and 2 indicate. Sense 3 is now largely limited to references to the Bible verse.
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